On Wednesday, the Central government allowed migrant workers to return to their home 36 days after the national lockdown was imposed.
Gandhinagar| With a high number of migrant workers wanting to go back to their home states, Gujarat government seems to be in a challenging situation. The state will have to arrange transport for 20 lakh migrants back to their homes, TOI reported.
On Wednesday, the Central government in a major relief to migrant workers, allowed them to return to their homes 36 days after the national lockdown was enforced.
The state government constituted a team comprising 16 IAS and IPS officers after the order was issued to handle the task. However, within a short period of time, over 20 lakh migrant labourers from various parts of the state have enrolled themselves and the figure is estimated to increase.
The number of migrant workers trying to return to their home towns has breached the 20 lakh-mark, a government official involved in the process told Times of India.
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“This number is likely to increase by a few more lakhs,” the official said.
However, he added that all the labourers are doubtful to return to their home town as industries and other commercial activities will resume shortly.
A huge chunk of the outbound rush of labourers is from the Gujarat industrial hubs like Surat, Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Bharuch and other towns of the southern part. The state was observing many challenges in shifting all migrant labourers to their native states by train.
Hence, the Central government has recommended states to allow people to travel by road. In the interim, Gujarat is attempting to reach out to the workers and persuade them to stay back, the report added.
(Inputs from News18)
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